Friday, October 9, 2015

My Experience in SIU Carbondale

By Kristina Shrestha Hada

I joined SIUC in Summer 2015. When I first arrived at SIUC, I was new to most of the things. Despite living in Louisiana for two years before joining SIUC, I was still new to the academic environment and culture at Carbondale. I would like to express my gratitude to those who helped me to adjust here. With ambivalent feelings for this place, I some how settled after a semester. There should be a "Home" wherever you go. So, I finally settled after getting an apartment like a "Home". Good thing about SIUC is the free bus route for students. I should have know about the Rider apps before hand, it makes your life easier. Forget about brochures for bus routes, just utilize your smartphones!

Starting of summer was a roller coaster, ups and downs. I even felt as if I am one of the pop-corns in the frying pan, you never know where you will end up. First day of class, assignment, second day another assignment and so on. The roller coaster began from the very first day of my summer class. Even things that looks simple becomes tough when there is the pressure of deadline.

Adam Savage might be true as he said - "Deadlines refine the mind. They remove variables like exotic materials and processes that take tool long. The closer the deadline, the more likely you will start thinking way outside the box."

The thing I will remember about SIUC is Faner Hall. I am pretty much sure even a vagabond will remember this building if he passes near by this building. This is the place where I wandered here and there as if I got lost in a maze. If I had nothing to do with printing tabloid size paper, then I would never enter the maze and wander here and there to locate the printing facility. I am sure most of my classmates had gone through the same scenario.

"What is this life if full of care, there is no time to stand and stare?" - W. H. Davies

The summer was tough and there was no time to stand and stare the beauty of the SIUC as Davies mentioned in his poem entitled "Leisure".

From Monday to Thursday, it feels like rolling down from roller coaster and Friday through Monday, feels like going up again. There was no time to stand and stare. I missed weekends in summer because of the lack of proper scheduling.

Talking about course work, watching our design taking shape feels like a parent watching their kids growing old happily. I worked on Open Air Museum which housed unique buildings. These buildings have their forms derived from the mother nature. For the finals, we were supposed to design an exhibition piece which expresses the theme of our design. Despite ups and downs and painstaking effort, I finally realized the outcome of my research through the final exhibition piece. In short, summer was fast, tough and fruitful.

Starting Fall semester, I could see students coming from nowhere. It feels good to see many students after a long period of time. Fall semester is unique in its own way. Everything is same except for the length of the semester compared to Summer. Despite scorching sun in Summer, I slowly adopted the place with the change in the season.

After we started our Fall semester, there were so many people in school. You will literally see students everywhere. It feels good to see people as we do not have many people in summer and you rarely see people during the off times or in weekends. In fall semester, we have class every day except in weekends. We have to take four courses but still there is time. It felt very different from the summer semester. It was better. One day, I was walking to my apartment and I saw the falling yellow leaves. It made me realize that I had stop complaining about this place and I have started loving this place. I feel so glad to see the colors of the fall and I am looking forward to see snow. Some people would tell me that it would snow here, while others tell that it would be only ice. Well, I am looking forward for the winter as I have lived in Louisiana for past 2 years and it rarely snows. Also, I am looking forward to see the Halloween this year in Carbondale.